Life after L'3id

9/30

Alrightttt…So l’3id (Fukar el-Leaid) was good! I spent it with my host family and some of their extended family. We ate lots of great food, including cous couse which I haven’t had since before Ramadan, and just hung out. I guess in a lot of ways it was the Moroccan version of Thanksgiving. Things finally got back to normal the Wednesday after l’3id. It was so exciting going to Tiznit and seeing people in the cafés again! I also met the new moudir (principle at the high school) last week. He is very nice and eager to collaborate it seemed like so that was good. Mostly I’ve been continuing to make contacts, work on language, and plan but I think I’m almost to the point where I am ready to put planning into action and start working on some projects. Besides life going back to normal post Ramdan the other exciting bit of news is that Marj’s parents are visiting from North Carolina! We went to Agadir last weekend to pick them up which was a lot of fun. Sean and Amber from our CBT family came, unfortunately Nicole couldn’t make it though. Within 15 minutes of being with her parents I heard a y’all, then later on we got Krispy Kremes, smuggled broccoli, and M&Ms. All this made me very happy but very homesick at the same time. It was definitely a fun weekend which even included a Michael Jackson themes Carnival parade and some late night shwarma (gyros)! It came time though for us to get back though and overall I’ve had a good week of meetings with people and community analysis research. This Friday we have a meeting with the ministry of health and then I’m off to Marrakesh for the weekend with Marj and her Parents. We’ll meet up with her Uncles who will also be visiting and then Sunday we’ll be visiting our CBT host families. Take care and I’ll let you know how the visit to Kesh/CBT goes after I hopefully get a chance to post next week! :)

10/12

So after a three hour meeting with the ministry of health on the 2^nd I took off for a much needed break in Marrakesh. Marj, her parents, and did a little exploring of Marrakesh and then we had a really nice visit our with our host families from training again since Marrakesh is close. We also met up with three other girls from Tiznit and two of Marj’s uncles who were also visiting while we were there which was nice. After a long weekend of browsing the markets, visiting with my host family, and yes, even KFC (we caved), it was time for me to get back to Tiznit. Since getting back to Tiznit I have had some discussions with some of the women in town about starting a women’s association. My counterpart has also been talking about working on a sanitation project and a training for the traditional birth attendants so since being back I’ve been busy with the planning stage of these projects. I also have a trip to Rabat for a SIDA committee meeting and then in-service training the week after in Marrakesh so things aren’t really going to slow down at least for a couple weeks. I’ll keep you updated though a long the way and let you know how it all goes! :)

Training and life during Ramadan...

8/16/09

I’m back! Sorry it’s taken me so long to post but I’m finally catching up! I just made it back from training and I’m adjusting back into life again in my site. Training was great. We received a lot technical information to help prepare us for launching projects. It was also good to catch up with all the other PCVs in my stage (training group). Also during the training I ran for a chance to represent my stage on the AIDS/HIV committee (SIDA) and won! I’ll be going to Rabat three times a year for committee meetings in addition to working on resources, organizing events, and working with related organizations to help with the Peace Corps Morocco’s goals regarding AIDS/HIV awareness in between meetings. Besides the SIDA election though we spent most of our time in sessions except for a weekend in between the two weeks of training during which several of us went hiking and to a Berber craft fair. The hike we did was an all day hike through a beautiful cedar forest and the craft fair we went to the next day turned out to be more of a music festival we were a little too early for but was still fun. Overall the training was enjoyable and informative but definitely exhausting so by the end of two weeks most of us were ready to get back to our sites. I actually took a detour though on the way back with Marj, Sean, and Amber to see our families from CBT again! It was a lot of fun and definitely worth the extra travel. I think it meant a lot that we came back. It worked out perfectly too because Hssna was visiting again with Dunia and Selma. We spent a lot of time visiting with our host families and reconnecting with others in the community that we knew. We only spent a night but it was time to get back to site after being gone for almost two and half weeks and hopefully we’ll be back again. So after a good visit in Ait Majdn I finally made it back to my site. Right away I was invited to a wedding so much for easing back in! It ‘s wedding season though and it turned out to be a lot of fun so I’m glad I went.

Alright…so that’s basically an overview of the last few weeks in a nut shell. There’s a health booth Meredith( another PCV friend about an hour away) is doing next week during a festival in her site which I’ll be helping out with and Ramadan starts on Friday so I’ll have lots to fill you on soon I’m sure - Take care and I’ll keep you posted! :)

8/23

After an eventful week or so I am back in site for a little bit until I’m off again for another training. So last week’s Moussum (festival) for Sidi Ahmed (the patron saint of Acrobates since most of the country’s acrobats come from the area, Tazerwalt, where the moussem takes place) was a success! The day I helped with the health booth we had over 400 people stop by for informational brochures and basic hygiene lessons! Later on after we finished with the booth we discovered candy covered chica peas (which are amazing!), camel tagine, and the clothing area where some of us found some cute Moroccan tops. After a couple nights at Meredith’s and a hard days work at the moussum I came back to my site but not for long. It was a Moroccan national holiday the day after I came back so several us met up in Agadir to celebrate. We stayed only a night since we’ve been out of site a lot lately but still needed a much needed break by beach. We even managed to find some Mexican food which was no exactly authentic but definitely tasty! After Agadir I made it back just in time to start Ramadan! For those of you who aren’t familiar with Ramadan it’s a month long period of fasting for Muslims so from four in the morning until sunset no food or water is allowed. It’s also a very social time where people invite others over for breaking fast at sunset. Then usually after the initial breaking of the fast at sunset (l’fdoor) there is another meal before bed (l’iminsen), and then the one last around three or so in the morning (l’shoor). In the bigger cities there’s a siren that goes off the let you know its time to get up and eat. So far I’ve been to a new family’s house every night except for my host family who I’ve broken fast with I guess twice now. It’s a little exhausted but it’s fun and has been a great way to meet some new people in town.

Alright…that’s all for now but I’ll keep you updated on my Ramadan experience and then next week I’ll be leaving for a three day volunteer support network training in Essaouira so I’ll let you know how that goes! Until then tahala gis (take care)! :)

Weekend in Kesh!

7-20
So I finally got to Marakesh this past weekend! I met up with my family for a wedding and got to see lots of he city too afterwords since the wedding was only the first night. I also got some beautiful hena done for the wedding by one of the neighbors right before I left. So I only saw the last night of the wedding on Friday and it was winding down so it was nice but very low key. I did get to wear my traditional Moroccan dress which was fun. I got lots of stares and “look at the tarameet (foreigner) in the Kaftan!” Once the wedding was over and we made into the actual city of Marakesh I got a tour, did some shopping, and just walked around since there are always things to see; whether it’s a snake charmer, a street performer, or just the architecture and the city itself. I made it back Sunday but I have a week before I leave for a training up in Azrou (by Fez) for two weeks. It's up north in the mountains so it'll be nice to get away from the heat here in Tiznit at least for a little bit.

Alright, take care and I’ll keep you posted!

New Apartment...Hamdillilah! :)

6/23
After a relaxing weekend in a bungalow on the beach in Sidi Ifni with four other girls from the Tiznit convent (there are literally no boys placed in Tiznit province since it’s too conservative), my batteries have been recharged. We lied on the beach, ate some really good fresh fish, and played cards. There was also some wifi so that was a HUGE treat! Already though, it’s been a busy week. I meet with my counterpart at the local clinic and then I had a site visit with my assistant program manager Rachid. Both went well. Rachid is always hilarious and full of good info so it was a fun and productive site visit. He also brought me my mountain bike which I’m really really excited about! Since I’m in a valley surrounded by mountains it’s flat and perfect for biking. Alright… well this is all the exciting news I have for now but I move into my apartment next Wednesday and I’m doing some furniture/appliance shopping tomorrow so I’ll keep you updated on how all that goes.

7/1
So it’s been quite an ordeal getting moved into the apartment but things are in place and I have finally moved in. Things came together last minute since we had some delays. The main delay was a last minute congratulations on getting elected party for Jamila which was planned during when we had already planned to go into Tiznit together to do some apartment shopping. This is typical life here in Morocco though…plan on being patient and flexible because Moroccan time is definitely very different than American time.
Besides moving though, Nicole came and got to see my site which was fun! There was no down time when we arrived at my site since there was a end of the school year party in full swing for the preschool my family runs below the house. Once things died down though we hung out with my host family for a bit and then went on a tour of my town (during which she got to experience first hand my town’s scream to prayer …yes it’s not a call, but a scream done but a Iman probably in his 90s). It was definitely a good time and just nice just to hang out since we hadn’t seen each other in a while. The day after Nicole came though was my first official day in my own apartment. Hallelujah! ...what a relief! I love my host family but after four months of staying with a host families I was ready. So far I’ve been enjoying having some privacy and once I get a chance to catch up on posting pixs I’ll post some of the apartment.

7/15
So I’ve been in the apartment for two weeks now and it continues to be great! I’ve also had some visitors. Whitney, another Health volunteer down south in Tata was the first. Then Marj and Nicole came. I went to Marj’s for the 4th and that was fun. We found some real hot dogs, got some watermelon, and had our selves a cookout Moroccan style since we had to cook the hot dogs in a Tagine hahha. It was a nice low key fourth. After the fourth Whitney came, I went to Agadir for a little house shopping, and then Nicole and Marj came since we all had a meeting with the Ministry of health last Friday. Unfortunately the meeting was pretty counterproductive since it was basically the ministry coming down on the older volunteers for silly reasons but we worked thru it. After the meeting we were all a little tense so we went to Sidi Ifni again and Goulmine for the weekend. Both were nice and relaxating. Goulmine is supposed to be the gate to the Sahara so that was neat.
That’s really all the excitement for now, but I’ll post more soon!

Life the last couple wks...

6/19
Not much to mention but my apartment is finally on its way to being ready for me to move into which is exciting! Also I had my first tea with a group of male leaders in the community at a café on the main road in Bounaamane on Wednesday so that was exciting! It’s really nice automatically being gender neutral as an American here. The last big highlight from this past week was having the Moroccan version of Chef Boyerdee. It was amazing! Imagine chef boyardee without the chemicals and with lentals done well. That’s what it was!..a more exotic form I guess. Alright…on that note I’ll stop but tomorrow I’m going to Sidi Ifni for the weekend so I’m sure I’ll have more to write soon!
6/23
After a relaxing weekend in a bungalow on the beach in Sidi Ifni with four other girls from the Tiznit convent (there are literally no boys placed in Tiznit province since it’s too conservative), my batteries have been recharged. We lied on the beach, ate some really good fresh fish, and played cards. There was also some wifi so that was a HUGE treat! Already though, it’s been a busy week. I meet with my counterpart at the local clinic and then I had a site visit with my assistant program manager Rachid. Both went well. Rachid is always hilarious and full of good info so it was a fun but productive site visit. He also brought me my mountain bike which I’m really really excited about! Since I’m in a valley surrounded by mountains it’s flat and perfect for biking. Alright….well this is all the exciting news I have for now but I move into my apartment next Wednesday and I’m doing some furniture/appliance shopping tomorrow so I’ll keep you updated on how all that goes.

Dresses, kittens, and elections...

6/13


It’s been a productive week! This is surprising since it also hit over 100 degrees in the shade and usually nothing gets done when it’s that hot. The main highlights were going to Agadir to go shopping for wedding outfits for Jamila’s wedding, getting my kitten, and the elections.


I’ll start with Agadir on Wednesday. Marj and I were going to go originally so I could get cat stuff and so Marj could pick up a Banjo for her Berber Banjo lessons but I found out my host dad gave Jamila and my host mom the ok to go to Agadir only on Wednesday to do shopping for wedding stuff. So, Marj and I went ahead and went without them in the morning and got our stuff done. After that we went to the soq and met up with my host mom, Jamila, and a host cousin. We found my dress pretty quick and painlessly. Mine is a lavender color and has three layers. The 1st is a satin and then there’s a layer on op of that that is lacey with silver accents. The final layer is a shear shall which even has a hood which makes me look like something out of Star Wars. The man selling the dress was from our town so we got a better deal on it so that was nice. After dress shopping we got lunch and walked around some more. The soq basically is a giant Moroccan version of a Mall so it provides a lot of entertainment. It’s comprised of little cubby hole shops under a giant plastic and tin roof. Everything you would ever want or need is there from furniture and clothes to bootleg DVDs and antiques. It’s quite the experience going and at first a little overwhelming but lots of fun once you get a feel for it.


Now, on to my kitten! My friend Whitney brought her on a bus all the way from the Tata region further south on Thursday. She is 7 weeks old and really really tiny with black and grey stripes. She didn’t really appreciate the bus ride but she made it. After much dispute her name is Raja. My host family didn’t like it because it’s the name of Casablanca’s soccer team and a Moroccan name but she’s definitely a Raja so the name stayed. My host family also took her brother (Tommy) so she has a playmate. The only problem is that my host family has lots of fabric and curtains in the house so it’s not very kitten proof and I think it’s only a matter of time before things start to get shredded. We’ll see….


And lastly, we had local elections here on Friday. This doesn’t sound too exciting except for the fact that Jamila was running for a position and won. This is significant because she is the first women in the region to hold any type of elected office. She ran along with four other women for various positions and was the only successful one. She also ran under her own party that she created and which was named after the group that kicked the French out. She really didn’t know if she had a chance or not especially since campaigning is only allowed for the week before the elections. The night before the elections there were all kinds of rallies and parades around town for the various parties. We went on the roof and since we live in the center of town and watched everything that was going on. She found out that she won around midnight along with two other family members in different areas. It was exciting but a long night followed by a day packed with visitors. It was fun though and I got to meet a lot of neat people. One of the other winners in town was a guy named Obama so when he came over to congratulate Jamila we had a good laugh about that. It was funny too because I heard people chanting his name on election night and I was really confused but then my family explained to me there was also an Moroccan Obama too hahah.



Alright I’ll end here until the next post, take care!

Emeek smeek (Little by little...)

6/8

It’s been a busy week and little by little I'm becoming more and more integrated. I went to the Sbitar waiting room on Monday and Tuesday to hang out with the women waiting to get vaccinations. I met some of women in town and got some practice with my tash so that was good. I also tried to get a hold of the moudir (principle) of the lycée (high school) because I need to get started (since it takes awhile) on getting approval so I can get into the schools and teach health lessons in the fall. They had the bac (the baccalauréat is French equivalent of the SATs only much more intense) last week though so I had to put that off for another week. On Wednesday I was in Tiznit for some furniture shopping. Thursday I was in Tiznit again for some more cyber time and tutoring….

I also lost my computer charger there which was funny because I wasn’t really worried…who would want to steal my computer charger especially since it’s American and they can’t use it anyways right?!.. However when I told my host family they were determined that we were going to locate it. I did have the number for the cyber cafe so I gave it to Jamila and the plan was for her to call and see if they had it. The plan would have worked if the number was actually the number for the cyber. It ended up being the home number for one of three of the guys who worked there. Two of guys who help run the cyber are younger more modern looking guys, and then there’s the guys who owns it. He looks a little older and is definitely a fundamentalist (he never looks at or talks to any of the PCVs when we go in). The home number ended up being Emr’s, the fundamentalist. Luckily his mom picked up though (hahahahah…) and told us to keep calling back. I told Jamila not to worry about it because I could get another volunteer that lives in Tiznit to go by and check for it in the morning. Seven, yes seven, phone calls she located the charger. Moral of the story: Don’t lose things! Hey, at least they helped me find it though and that matters.

Anywayysssss.....so that was Thursday evening, Friday I went over to my friend Neijma’s for cascrut (tea time) which was fun because I also got to help her crack Argan nuts. Argan trees are only found in my region in Morocco. A lot of the women collect the nuts and make Argan oil which is hard work but it brings in decent money because it’s so expensive. I actually got to taste some of the oil and it is unlike anything else I’ve tasted. It’s really good but also really different from anything we have in the US. When from I came home from Neijma’s we had family visiting so I spent the rest of the day hang out with them and helping in the kitchen. Saturday and Sunday, Marj and I went to visit Nicole near Tafrout. Tafrout is up the mountains and absolutely beautiful. We met her host family and had cascrut with them which was nice then we got a tour of her town and relaxed some so that was nice. Sunday morning we caught a taxi back home in time to catch the finals of the French Open and get ready for next week.

Alright…that’s it for now but also check out Marj’s blog (easternedge.wordpress.com) because she’s given me my own section on it called “Thoughts by Jess” which I think you’ll enjoy! :) Take care and I’ll post soon!

On the run!

So after several sedentary months I finally started running again this week! It’s been a battle since my family doesn’t understand why a woman would want to do anything physical like that and because they insist I always take my 14y/o host niece with me who hates running. I finally convinced her though and let me tell you!...the scenery is beautiful! I’m in the foothills of the Anti-Atlas and its pretty deserty so there’s lots of cacti and palm trees but there’s also lots of geraniums and other beautiful flowering plants. The area where I run is also neat because there are lots of little adobe structures all around. It’s beautiful but I do have to be very careful since the heat can be brutal and I can’t run near where the men congregate. It’s funny when we do pass people though the different responses we get. We’ve gotten everything from scornful disbelief to people joining in with us which is pretty funny when they’re wearing their jalabas and sandals. Whatever works I guess…as long as you’re getting the exercise right?! ? :)

Finally at my Site!

5/6/09

So I have sworn in and arrived at my final site where I’ll be for the next two years. We had a nice swearing in ceremony during which the Ambassador spoke and we took our oath of service. After that we had a reception and packed our bags to leave for our sites. It took a day to get to Agadir, which included a stop in Marrakesh for lunch and a taxi transfer, and then the following morning we went to Tiznit. I was soo nervous about meeting another host family but again they are so wonderful and welcoming. The town is beautiful and has pretty much all the amenities I need besides a cyber cafe and maybe a weekly soq market. I can’t complain though because some people have to travel hours for a cyber and I only have about a 20 minute taxi ride to my nearest town with everything I can’t find at my site. The people at my site are also really great. Everyone is friendly and wants to be helpful which is neat. Thanks to Jess, the volunteer I’m replacing everyone knows why I’m here and respects my mission. This is good since there’s a lot of work to be done here. This week I have been shadowing Jess and getting all the info I can before she leaves at the end of May…she’s been a wonderful resource and great about introducing me to everyone around town. So far what I have learned is that Trash, an ambulance for the nearest clinic, and training for the traditional birth attendants should be top priorities. Once things settle and I have integrated more I’ll start trying to tackle these things a long with other projects which I’m sure will pop up.

Alright that’s all for now but I’ll post soon! : )

5/10

I just came back from my first out of site project! Me and five other girls went and helped out at a SIDA (AIDS in French) day event at another PCV’s (Meredith’s) site that lives in the region. There were 100 kids and they only seven of us but it worked out. They made SIDA bracelets, learned a song bringing awareness to the topic, watched a video on it, and then we had a question and answer session which was interesting. It was a big success and then afterwards we had a girl’s night at Meredith’s complete with pudding cake and American Idol. Before, I went to Meredith’s though I also had a great experience with an English class nearby which helped prepare me for the kids at Meredith’s site. Me and the other Jess went to my soon to be tutor’s English class to do a Q&A session and then teach a health lesson. The kids are high school aged and amazing for only having a year of English. They asked some intense questions too like what do you think about Gaza, What do you think about terrorism, and how is America going to fix the world economy. Luckily their teacher stepped in and let the class know we are not politicians whenever we did get questions like that so that was helpful. Alright…These are the main updates but I’ll continue to keep you updated!

5/18

It’s been quite a week or so. To start I’ve been busy mostly with meeting with people in my community, brain storming project ideas, and getting my carte de sejour (which is basically a work visa). The peace corps thankfully gives a tutoring allowance so I also started tutoring in Tashlaheit this week also.

It’s also been a hard week because I found out Lucy, my dog back home, passed away at 17, and it’s also Jess’s last week here before she goes back. Our overlap is almost over so I’m trying to get all the information I can from her before I’m completely on my own. Luckily though she was here to be supportive when I found out Lucy was going to be put down. Also my family from CBT called and texted me when they found out through Marj so it was nice to have that support also. What made it even more difficult though was that most Moroccans don’t understand the concept of having pets. Because of this my host family could not understand why I was so upset. My host dad offered to go to Taradant though (the next Province over to the East) to find a puppy for me since there are a lot of strays there. A sweet offer and it made me feel a little better that he kind of understood but I said no.

So those are the biggest bits of news for now but I hope everyone is doing well back home and I’ll post again soon.

Jess

5/29

The other Jess left on Monday morning so I have officially almost finished my first week alone at my site. Before Jess left we had a going away lunch for her last Friday with other volunteers and then with my host family last Sunday. We also walked to her village earlier last week where she started out her service and met some really neat people she needed to say goodbye to. It took about a week but she finally said all her goodbyes and headed to 72 hour checkout in Rabat before heading to the States. Now that I’m on my own I have been trying to set a schedule for myself so I’m integrating and getting to know the community. After meeting with my counterpart this week at the clinic and with my tutor I think I have one. On Mondays and Tuesdays the Clinic is full since they’re vaccination days so I’ll try to spend part of both days each week in the waiting room meeting people and practicing language skills. I also am going to start taking daily walks hopefully more than once a day as another way to meet people and hopefully get invited to tea. I’m going to spend Wednesdays investigating new associations. Thursdays are dedicated to going to Tiznit for Tutoring, soq (farmers market that is usually only one day a week), and for time at the cyber cafe plus if I have any other errands. Fridays are going to be a day to brainstorm ideas, investigate more associations and to catch up on reading. Until I move into my apartment the weekends are going to be dedicated to getting appliances and furniture for my apartment, writing, and planning for the next week. Of course this is the ideal schedule but won’t always happen. This week is a good example of this. On Wednesday I had to go to Agadir since I found out around 9am we had an emergency consolidation exercise. So I dropped my plans for the day to get to and from Agadir for the drill. At least I got a good burger on the beach while I was there which is rare over here so I guess it was worth it! :)

I’ll end here for now but just a little side note because I’ve gotten some questions about how to comment on posts, if you want to comment click on the little pencil icon at the end of each post. It should prompt you and be pretty simple from there.

Thanks again everyone for following so far and I’ll post again soon!

Training

End of Week 1

It’s officially been over week now since I arrived and I’m writing this the night before I leave for my CBT (community based training) site. I will be staying with a host family for seven weeks before leaving for my final site where I’ll spend the rest of my two years. For now, I’ll reflect on the past week. It’s been a great week full of getting to know people and orientation. We’ve had great food, explored the city, and even had the US Ambassador to Morocco come speak. All of this is great, but I won’t lie, I have my moments of homesickness. For example when I Skype my parents and my mom is on the porch and my dad is cooking hamburgers out back or when I just wish I could hop in the car and get what I need without having to hassle with finding where to go or speaking a second language. All of this is part of adapting though, so might as well get use to this feeling of being somewhat lost all the time at least until I get more settled. I have been more adventures and resourceful than I thought I was before I came though so this is a step in the right direction! Alright… this is all for now but they’ll be more on my host family and CBT soon!
Bsalama!

Week 2

So I have arrived at my training site and it is absolutely beautiful and the people are unbelievably welcoming. My host family has two boys Aziz(6) and Mohammed(12). My host mom, Rqia is a house wife and my host dad Munsif is a farmer. So far I have had more tea and bread than I’ve had in the past 23 years combined, I’ve been taught proper Moroccan dance during improv dance parties with Arabic pop at the neighbors, and I have learned going to anyone’s house means at least staying a half hour for Lqhwa(coffee) or atay(tea). They are this welcoming and I haven’t even really learned to communicate in Tashlahit yet so I can’t wait until I can and we can enjoy one another’s company without playing charades. Tashlahit is also the Berber dialect that is spoken mostly in the dessert and on the coast so my final site after training will probably be in one of the two. It’ll be exciting to finally find out and get settled in my site so I can start arranging things like a language tutor and housing after I spend another two months with a new host family. I’m enjoying my time in training but I’m also anxious to begin as a volunteer instead of a trainee!

Alright I should end here but I’ll right more soon. I apologize for taking so long. I only have time for Cyber cafes usually once a week so please bare with!

Week 3

Alright soo…I realized I have been pretty vague so let me give you some details on where I am and what I’m doing. Peace Corps policy doesn’t allow me disclose where I am exactly on a blog so I’ll describe it for you instead…I’m in a larger village in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. It’s absolutely beautiful! When I say Atlas think Alps because they’re that big! On my way into the center of the village for training I go through a valley which usually includes sheep grazing on the hills above it along with scattered palm trees and wild flowers (mostly poppies). Morocco is very green right now so there are long almost neon grasses and cactus everywhere along with scattered olive and almond trees. I live literally in a row with the four other trainees at my training site. We’re all neighbors and our families are all related which makes it nice because it allows us meet up at one our houses easily with the kids and usually we end up playing games. I’m also the farthest out so every morning I start the pick up route with Mohammed and we pick up all the others on the way to training. Our training group is really great and a lot of fun which helps because eight or so hours of training can get really long each day. We all have Moroccan names that we use in training and at home…I’m Fadma, Nicole from Michigan is Hss’na, Marj, a fellow NCer, is Hend, and the married couple, Sean and Amber, from New Mexico, are Emr and Kadija. We also have a Language and Culture Coordinator, Ali, who facilities training, and our mascot who lives above our training site is Hussain (5 or 6). We call ourselves Tarabout (team) Hussain in honor of him. We have taught him important things from the US such as the exploding handshake and red rover which keeps us entertained during break. Usually during training we have language in the morning and early afternoon and then cultural training in the later part of the afternoon. We also occasionally have visits to the local clinic and hopefully the schools also in the near future. Once a week we go to a bigger nearby town a few kilometers away where we have additional training which is more technical with other trainees from other training sites. Earlier this week we visited the local sbetar (hospital) which has a in and out doctor and full-time nurse for an average of 40 patients per day. We also found out the fulltime nurse is also the Imam for the closest Mosque to our training site (there are three or so mosques in town) and the one who chants the prayer over the intercom 5 times a day. Not necessarily jobs that you think would go hand in hand but he seems to balance them well.

Alright, I'm typying in word so I can post hopefully next time I'm at cyber and it's getting late so I'll end here. So, bslama for now but I'll try to post again soon!

Week 4

So there’s a lot to tell! To begin I’ll fill you in on some of the weekend activities that have taken place over the past couple weekends since I’ve filled you in on the weekday routine. Saturday we stayed after our morning training session to have a discussion with two of the nurses and two of the teachers from our area on Moroccan culture. We learned Moroccans don’t really date, arranged marriages aren’t uncommon (but are becoming more so), and Moroccans marry young for the most part compared to Americans. The discussion turned out to be a nice exchange. The nurse from our sbetar had to do afternoon prayer though so the meeting was a little abbreviated but still informative. On Sunday we went to the largest big city in the province that we’re aloud to go to during training. It was nice because we saw a bunch of our fellow trainees and a volunteer from the region. We shopped around in the morning and then had lunch with Brian the PCV. After prodding Brian with our newbie questions we left around mid afternoon. Besides asking Brian questions the other highlight was bargaining in the market for the first time successfully which was exciting and I guessed proved some progress somewhat in language even though I feel it’s been slow coming at times.
The weekend before we (the 4 others in my training group and I) went to Ozoud which is like the Victoria Falls or Niagara Falls of Morocco. It was absolutely breathtaking. That was on Sunday. Saturday after training we just hung out at the cyber café. This brings me to something important I want to mention, from now on I’ll be trying to post consistently on Saturday afternoons so I’ll be on Facebook chat and Skype around 11 Eastern Time so look for me then!
Besides the weekend trips the other big event has been family staying with us. They came while I was in the larger city I mentioned this past Saturday. My sister Hss’na and her daughters (Dunia (1) and Selma (5) are staying I think until this weekend. I found out I actually have 6 grown sisters plus Mohammed and then Aziz is my host parents’ grandson. It’s been fun having a baby around and Hss’na is very sweet. She gave me some Moroccan PJs and even did some henna on me last night! It’s quite the process…she had to mix the henna paste, apply the design, and I had to dry the Henna over coals for a half hour. It was good bonding time and it turned out well.

Well I think this is all I have for now but I’m sure there will be more to post soon..take care and check back soon!

Week 5

Another week has flown by and I am officially over half way done with training! The final site interviews definitely made me aware of this earlier this week. I'll find out on the 17th where exactly I’ll be but it'll probably be in the dessert or on the coast. Besides site interviews I went to my first wedding! Last Sunday night my family wanted to see pictures so I showed them some from home. We got to some of my cousin's wedding last summer and they started talking about how they we're going to a wedding. I knew there was one the next day but it would be during training. When I asked them if this is what they we're talking about they told me yes BUT we are all going to the start of the wedding tonight and I had a half hour to get ready. It was short notice but turned out to be really fun. The men and women were separated and for awhile we waited for the bride and groom to arrive. When they did come there was a lot of loud chanting and deep throated shrills from the women. Once the bride and groom were situated we ate a really delicious dinner of lamb and fig taggen. After dinner there was a lot of dancing then finally it was time to head home to get some sleep before starting another week of training. The rest of the week was filled with more language and technical training so by Friday we were all pretty exhausted. Luckily we had Saturday morning off to cook for our families (I made pizza) and then after that we were free to leave our training site for an overnight stay somewhere. The five of us decided to go spend the night in a hotel near a beautiful lake and then hike there the next day. It was absolutely beautiful and the hike was definitely a great workout since we basically were going up a mountain that was next to lake. It was well worth it but by the time we hiked back to town and ate lunch we were pretty worn out. It was a nice break though and much needed.
These are the highlights so far but more to come! I promise to try and post more frequently. Internet has been difficult during training so I really appreciate your patience! Also if you want to check out some pictures go to www.eatsernedge .wordpress.com.

Baslama for now!

Week 6-8

Okay so auto-recovery decided to erase three weeks worth of blogging so I’ll try to catch you up but if you’re interested in more details check out www.easternedge.wordpress.com since Marge has been much more diligent about blogging during training.
So I left off talking about our trip to the lake at Ban El Ouidane around the half way point during training. After that Hss’na, Dunia, and Selma stayed another week or so due to a taxi strike which made her extend her trip for another week and I also got my final site placement. I’ll be in Tiznit which is a province in the south along the coast. My site is a relatively large village which seems to have all the basic amenities I’ll need and my host family includes my parents and two host sisters (14 and 24). There’s also a current volunteer I’m replacing who is leaving in three weeks and she’s leaving me with some unfinished projects to work on so I’m excited about that too.
After we received site placements we were aloud to travel out of our training site again for an overnight excursion within our training province of Azilal. Our group didn’t take advantage of the overnight but we did go to Demnate which is a larger city by us to explore their well known large soqq market and to do some shopping for our host families. The week following that was intense because we needed to study for a language proficiency exam. We had to score a certain level on the exam in order to swear in as volunteers. We took the exam on a Thursday then my host’s mom’s mom died the following day. The mourning rituals which followed included my family staying at my host grandma’s house and my family not cooking anything for three days. So this meant sleepovers at other trainees’ houses and meals at my grandma’s house brought by other women cooking for my family. Fortunately all of the trainee’s at my training site and their families were helpful in taking me in and taking some burden off my mom during a difficult time. The Saturday after she died we had a farewell get together for our community which turned out really well and with a good turn out. There was a lot of food, dancing, and singing. After the get together Saturday and some packing Sunday we left our training site and host families for good for more training activities and our swearing in as official volunteers in a bigger nearby city. After swear in we leave for our sites so I’ll be going to the Tiznit province on Thursday (April 30) to start as an official peace corps volunteer!
Alright, well hopefully I’ve done a good job recapping the last three weeks and (enshallah) I’ll be posting soon from Tizit!

First Day...

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Salaam alaykum!
So after several delayed flights on Monday and missing orientation followed by massive sleep deprivation I have finally arrived in Morocco! It is only my second day in the country but I’m already in love with it. The people, the food, and the scenery are all amazing! All the staff and the fellow PC trainees have made this a very enjoyable beginning to my service here also. When we finally arrived yesterday we had we had a long bus ride from the airport to our hotel where when we arrived we had lunch. Our lunch included our first taste of real couscous. After lunch we had a medical orientation, which I was pretty excited about since we got our mosquito nets! Following orientation we had a walking tour of the city and we ended the evening with dinner and some group wifi time in the hotel lobby mostly due to the fear of not having convenient internet after we leave for our training cites Monday.
Needless to say though, it’s been a exhausting 4 or 5 days and we had full day of orientation today so I’ll end here but for now I arrived safely and I promise to keep you posted on more of my adventures from the Maghreb soon!